Project title: "Bridges to the doctorate mentoring program for minority students - A partnership between Colorado State University campuses" A Bridges to the Doctorate mentorship program at CSU-Pueblo for minority M.S. students in chemistry and biology is proposed. Biology and chemistry faculty at CSU-P and CSU-Fort Collins faculty will create a highly interactive program to promote underrepresented ethnic minorities to enter the M.S. program at CSU-P and ease the transition of these students into Ph.D. programs at CSU-FC. CSU-P has a large ethnic minority student population (about 27% Hispanic, 4% African-American, &2% Native American), but few continue past baccalaureate training in biomedical graduate programs. The purpose of the mentorship program is to provide academic and career advising, as well as research experiences to increase the number of CSU-P students pursuing doctorates with College of Natural Sciences biomedical faculty in the Departments of Biochemistry &Molecular Biology, Biology, and Chemistry. CSU-Fort Collins faculty would serve as mentors. The program will provide training and financial support for 8 students over three years (4 in each of 2 cohorts). The specific aims are: (1) to identify underrepresented minority students at CSU-P who have potential to become independent research scientists;(2) to provide mentoring and research training for minority students in the M.S. program at CSU-P, which includes a pre-M.S. matriculation program in the first summer, lab rotations, courses, seminars, and research at CSU-FC in the second summer;and (3) to transition M.S. students to Ph.D. programs at CSU- FC, which includes reciprocal campus visits by CSU-P students and CSU-FC faculty and a pre-doctoral matriculation program at CSU-FC in the third summer.